Fairly Bear

Two - Bloody Surprise

Ulrich

*TW: Violence*

Months of research and leg work and weeks of planning culminated in them surrounding this unremarkable-looking supposedly abandoned warehouse. They had four teams set up and ready. This was their biggest real lead to get some real gains against this syndicate.

Three guys working on coms and evacuation planning; they would call in the waiting vans with medical personnel to take the victims once the four teams moved in from all sides. The fourth team had to evacuate the victims they could clearly smell inside, along with a myriad of odd scents. The rest of their teams were capturing whoever they could for questioning, or killing them, so they didn’t escape to warn the rest of the syndicate.

They knew the vampires had some kind of slavery ring going and they knew that they mostly kidnapped humans, but the scents surrounding this place had very little human scent to speak of. Perhaps this was just the depot before they moved them elsewhere, but this was the first big lead they had. They had no choice but to move in.

He growled under his breath, his bear was on edge and he wasn’t used to it. He was usually the calmest in their whole team. Very little managed to ruffle him, but something in there had him chomping at the bit and he was having a hard time controlling his bear, Unger.

Rupert gave him the side-eye from where he stood beside him. They were best friends from childhood and close neighbors. In fact, they are the only shifters in history to have a sleuth bordering a wolf pack without any problems. Well, he was the only bear in his sleuth so far, so it didn’t really count yet, but he did have his territory bordering the wolf pack.

It may be that Rupert was not serious enough to be an alpha; he was a good alpha, just not very serious. The guy always had a f*****g joke and sometimes it drove him insane to the point where he just went back to his sleuth territory to get some peace, despite them spearheading this coalition.

SADE – Supernatural Association of Defense and Enforcement. They had the support of the Supernatural Council, but they had very little input on their missions, only informing them of anything that raised their suspicions.

It was mostly wolf packs and a few sleuths and the odd promising lone wolf that earned a name and a home by assisting them. They were the task team that protected both humans and the Supernaturals from the syndicates that preyed on them, which was why they found themselves here.

Suddenly, his ears perked at the sound that seemed to be approaching them from the second floor. It sounded like an animal in pain and he glanced up a moment before something crashed through the large window.

Rupert gave the signal to move in immediately before their plans went up in flames. He was frozen in space a moment when he saw a vampire disentangle himself from a small bloodied body, so he could land on his feet. His bear suddenly surged forward and he caught the small, blood-covered creature while standing in the midst of glass raining down around him in a spectacular show of how his life had just shattered.

He was frozen in time as he stared down at the woman that seemed almost lifeless in his arms. He was vaguely aware of a scuffle while they contained the vampire before he could alert the others, but his eyes were stuck on the small woman, dressed in rags.

It took him long moments to realize this creature in his arms was his mate, but he didn’t know what she was. She smelled somewhat human, but the other scents mingled with her scent made it almost impossible to guess. She seemed to be dying as her body started convulsing and his bear roared out his anger and fear, while he clutched her to his chest.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he spun around, his bear leaping forward and baring his teeth to protect his suffering mate. Rupert took a step back with his hands raised in a show of peace, nodding his head towards the first medical van that stood waiting for them.

Unger took control and rushed her to the van but refused to let her go, while a very nervous wolf doctor kept his throat bared in submission while he connected her to a saline IV and attempted to find out what was happening to her.

The vampire snorted as he passed by in silver cuffs. “Little b***h isn’t so feisty now.”

He was cut short when he stared in shock as Unger held him by the throat, dangling him above the ground with one hand. “What did you do to her?”

“She got a double dose of serum. She might survive, she might not.” The vampire grinned at him and then his eyes widened in shock a moment before Unger snapped his neck and dropped him like the garbage he was for hurting his mate. Of course, the bastard would wake after a while, but he had wanted him to suffer a little of the pain he had inflicted on his mate.

“We need to get her to a hospital now.” The doctor urged nervously, injecting something into her IV that seemed to lessen her shaking and wheezing.

“Go; go, take her. Keep your throat bared, Unger is in a pissy mood today.” Rupert urged the doctor a moment before he slammed the doors shut and the driver pulled away at a dangerous speed.

Unger kept growling whenever it seemed like the doctor was trying to move her too far out of his arms. After what seemed like a lifetime, they came to a screaming stop in front of the pack hospital and he got out as soon as the doors opened, growling at anyone who attempted to take his mate from him.

Ulrich was still fighting for control, but couldn’t seem to get it back. He’d all but lost hope of ever finding his mate after he turned thirty this year. But here she was, broken and bloody in his arms and they didn’t know if she was going to make it.

He was stopped short when he was suddenly sprayed with cold water in the face and he glared at Miranda, the head doctor. She dropped the sprayer attached to a hose and glared right back at him with her hands on her hips. “We can’t help her when you hold her to you like some kind of rag doll. Put her on the bed and I’d consider letting you stay in the room and not drugging you into oblivion.”

He growled again, unwilling to release his hold.

“You know I’ll do it! I have only females ready to work on her, but you’re going to have to put her down so we can help her.”

Reluctantly, he inched closer to the gurney, eyeing her suspiciously. “That’s it, big guy; you know you can trust me. I’m your best friend’s sister, you saw me grow up and know that I’d never lie to you…” She urged him gently until he lay his mate down gently, but he couldn’t convince himself to let her go completely.

Miranda took her small, limp hand and laid it in his large one and gave him a reassuring smile before they took the gurney and rushed into the hospital, dragging him along like he was attached to her.

Once they had her in a room, Miranda shoved him into a seat at the top of her bed so they had space to work on her. His eyes stayed focused on his little mate. She was covered in blood and gashes, one of the nurses was fishing glass out of her feet, swearing at her for running with the glass and driving it deeper into her flesh.

Another was cleaning her myriad of cuts from crashing through a window; she was clearly half starved and pale. They were drawing blood to do tests, while they added another saline bag to her IV, the previous having run empty. Once they’d cleaned her up and treated all her wounds, he was allowed to sit next to her and hold her hand while they did tests.

***

Days; he’d been sitting next to her unconscious form for days without there being any change. Miranda or a female nurse would come to check in on her, giving her another vitamin enriched IV every now and then and checking her vitals.

No one knew exactly what she was, since her blood kept mutating and they had no idea what they had injected her with. She was also suffering through withdrawals, according to Miranda; they kept them drugged to keep them docile.

The other victims were apparently there the longest. She was still relatively new. Some of the women and even a few men had been injected with serums to change them into whatever creatures they were ordered to be.

From what he understood, her withdrawals were relatively mild, but he was exasperated by whatever they had injected her with. Miranda had informed him that she had only just moved into addiction to the substance they used and thus had the best chance of healing without threat of a relapse, unlike some of the others who would need an extensive detox and to be in a program to assist them with recovery.

Rupert had checked in a couple of times, keeping him in the loop of their questioning. Ostensibly, all the changes were made on order by their clients. Some of the paperwork had been lost, since the vampires in charge had set their offices on fire before they attempted to flee. So they had limited information and questioning was time-consuming.

Rupert came into the room again, the sign that another day had dawned and his mate still hadn’t woken up. No one was sure if she would, but he couldn’t think like that. He needed to believe that his mate would wake up. He couldn’t find her, only to lose her again almost instantly; they didn’t even know her name.

“Buddy, I hate to tell you this, but you reek! It’s time to get cleaned up; she can’t wake up while you knock her out with your ripe flavor.”

Ulrich gave him a halfhearted growl without taking his eyes off his mate. He knew he stank, but he couldn’t get himself to leave.

“Come on, there are guards around the hospital, she’s safe. You need to clean up. When she wakes up she doesn’t want to see an unkempt beast at her bedside. It’ll scare the crap out of her.”

When he didn’t react, Rupert took the straw from the bedside table and started shooting spit-covered paper balls at him. One hit him in the face and he growled. Rupert grinned and followed that with another one. He glared at him, only to get another shot to his forehead, slowly running down his nose with an unneeded amount of spit, leaving a trail.

He came to his feet, growling, and Rupert shot another at him, stepping back. With an annoyed growl, he charged Rupert, who took that moment to slip out the door, plying him with more spitballs while he chased him, intent on killing him.

Before he knew it, they were near the river and Rupert dove against him with so much force that they toppled backwards into the river. The only reason he had managed to do that was because Rupert was one of the strongest Alpha wolves in the country.

Ulrich surfaced for air, growling, but Rupert just leapt out of his reach. “Get cleaned up, buddy. You’re already wet.” He answered, throwing a bar of their self-made natural soap at him.

He glared at his friend, who winked at him before walking away. He would have preferred a shower in his own house, but this would have to do, since he didn’t want to leave her for too long. But he didn’t want to meet her with spitballs on him, either. If their small showers in the hospital had been able to accommodate him, he’d have showered there.

He was pissed at Rupert and he’d get him for his stupid games, but he could get cleaned up while he was there. He undressed and started bathing before he washed his clothes and got out of the river. He hung his clothes on a nearby branch to dry and found a pair of pants that Rupert had thoughtfully left him. They were fine with nudity, but he could only imagine his mate’s reaction when he showed up naked, especially after what she’d been through.